Ökumenisches Zentrum Klein Berkel, Ecumenical center in Klein Berkel, Germany.
The Ökumenisches Zentrum Klein Berkel consists of the Catholic St. Vizelin Church and the Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer House, built to plans by the Hameln architect Kreuzer at Schulstraße 22–26. A single portal on Schulstraße opens onto both buildings. The plain chancel is dominated by a crucifixion group and the organ; the altar is formed by two stylized chalices standing side by side, symbolizing the two denominations.
The foundation stone was laid in 1976, making it the second ecumenical facility of its kind in the region established jointly by Lutheran and Catholic leadership. This shared project represented an important step in dialogue between the two denominations.
Two Christian communities worship and gather here together, sharing the same building for their different traditions. You see the spaces used by both denominations, showing how different religious practices exist side by side.
The centre is entered through a portal on Schulstraße, which opens onto both St. Vizelin Church and the Dietrich Bonhoeffer House; the Catholic parish house stands next door at Bürgermeister-Droese-Straße 2. The large hall of the Bonhoeffer House holds up to 200 people, with several smaller rooms alongside. The meadow behind the buildings was redesigned in 2004 as a garden modelled on Eden.
The Catholic church is the only St. Vizelin church in the Diocese of Hildesheim, making it architecturally distinct among regional houses of worship. The saint's name connects the building to early Christian missionary work in northern Germany.
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